Motorcycle gear and accessories are a funny thing. What might be inexpensive in the automotive or boating world is much more expensive when the label “motorcycle” is applied to the same product. This happens a lot with things like waterproof switches, fuse blocks, and auxiliary lights.

Now, motorcycle auxiliary lights come in one of two flavors: “marker” or “running” lights that are used to help other people see the motorcyclist, and lights that are used to help the motorcyclist see better at night.

There are many lighting products for motorcycles. Supposedly, these cost more money than their automotive counterparts because they are smaller and are made of tough-sounding materials in order to survive the harshness of the open road.

For example, Hyper-Whites are a popular, LED “marker” style lighting system. The LEDs are in a waterproof housing, and the kit comes with a waterproof switch. It will run you about $120.00.

Or, you can just buy some cheap-ass LEDs off of eBay for $5 each and a $2 switch from RadioShack and see if they do the trick.
Right up front I’m going to say that the Hyper-Whites, and products like it, are far better made than the Euro EFFECTS ones I got from eBay. The question isn’t “are these no-name LEDs as good as Hyper-Whites?” as much as it is “are $5 lights good enough to serve as marker lights on a motorcycle?”

The Euro EFFECTS lights have five white, 5mm LEDs mounted in a plastic housing. One of the LEDs points straight forward. The other four lights are mounted at increasing angles, to a maximum of about 35 degrees. The housing itself is not waterproof, but the seller of the lights, EFX, stated that the wiring of the board is sealed in a waterproof epoxy. Seemed a little sketchy, but I wired them up anyway.

I’ve run the LEDs for about four months and three thousand miles. They aren’t held on by expensive, billet aluminum fork mounts but by industrial strength velcro. The not-waterproof-switch from RadioShack has held steady through dozens of days of pouring rain. The cheap $5 lights have proven themselves to be durable, and fairly bright. Though not as bright as the 55W spotlights I run, they seem to do the job:

Here’s a closeup of the multi-angles LEDs in their cheap housing:

The $2 switch from RadioShack, which had been rained on for about eight hours prior to taking this photo:

As you can see, the LEDs aren’t as bright as the spotlights. However, I think they are visible enough during the day to serve as decent marker lights.

All in all, I’ve been pleased with the Euro EFFECTS lights. They don’t have a storefront on eBay any more, and the lights are running $14.95 each now. Still a far cry from “real” motorcycle lights, but not as good a deal as getting four sets for $19 shipped on eBay last October. You can find some EFX resellers on eBay pushing them for about $10 each if you search for “led light pod.”

If you’re looking for inexpensive, low power draw “marker” style lights for your motorcycle, try the EFX lights. They’re dead simple to install and come at a very nice price point.